Power Poles

In Tamarac, Fla., a woman complained for years to Florida Power & Light Co. about a decayed utility pole, one so decrepit that a tree was growing out of it. The company never replaced it, and the pole snapped in Hurricane Wilma, leaving her without electricity for 11 days. In Lighthouse Point, Fla., frustrated by years of power outages, the mayor hired a consultant who earlier this year found 27 poles in need of repair.

Public utility investigators are recommending $99 million in fines against Southern California Edison and four telecommunication companies for allegedly overloading power poles that collapsed and sparked a wildfire in Malibu Canyon. The California Public Utilities Commission's Consumer Protection and Safety Division said in a filing Friday that Edison destroyed evidence and misled investigators about the cause of the Oct. 21, 2007, blaze, which destroyed 14 structures and 36 vehicles.

Claims totaling $70 million were filed against the city of Los Angeles Thursday on behalf of a 6-month-old child and the husband of a woman who was fatally crushed during a freak accident near Cal State Los Angeles earlier this month. Two suits were filed by the family of Rosalva Gomez Leyva, 27, who was killed June 4 by a falling power pole that had been severed by the boom of a construction drilling rig swinging free as the vehicle rounded a corner in East Los Angeles.

Will Power won the pole position for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third consecutive year that the Australian has started first in the Izod IndyCar Series race. Power also has captured the pole for all three of the series' races so far this season, and he won the second race, last weekend, at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The Team Penske driver said: "We've put ourselves in the best possible position" for Sunday's race. But he noted the field's close qualifying times: "It's going to be a tough day tomorrow.

Two Southern California Edison power poles caught on fire in separate Newport Beach incidents Monday morning. The top of one pole fell to the ground as sparks flew. Both fires were the result of weather conditions, when moisture in the evening air brings salt and other contaminants to the wires, then the hot sun dries those substances to the wires, the utility said. In a process called tracking, the wire becomes heated and sparks set the pole on fire.

An 80-year-old Montclair woman who was critically injured last month when a car driven by her husband slammed into a power pole dangling from a crane has died, her son said Friday. Betty Jean Deyo-Ridley and her husband, Joel Ridley, were returning home Dec. 6 after visiting a friend who was helping plan their honeymoon when they crashed in Upland. Ridley, 81, who was driving, died at the scene. Deyo-Ridley suffered skull fractures and cranial bleeding.

The vigilante patrol started on a cautionary note. No, Steve Wayne wasn't perched on the hood of a moving car like he sometimes is--one hand clutching the grille and the other clawing at utility poles with a garden rake. Not today. Wayne was setting out to harvest the latest crop of illegal signs from power poles and traffic signals along Sunset Boulevard by hand. "Goodbye. Don't get arrested," ordered Nancy Wayne, his wife of 35 years. "Be careful. Don't forget your medication . . .

That drumming in the woods along the Salmon River is the pileated woodpecker drilling holes in wooden power poles. It could also be the sound of ratepayers' coins rattling away to pay for the damage. The 18-inch-tall woodpecker knocks huge holes in the poles for its nests, undermining the supports for power lines that serve central Idaho mountain towns, including Sunbeam and Stanley. "We've had woodpecker problems in the past, but nothing of this magnitude," said Frank Corrales Jr.

Hurricane-force Santa Ana winds pummeled Orange County and much of the Southland on Monday, uprooting trees, snapping hundreds of power poles and snarling morning commutes. An estimated 250,000 customers in Central and Southern California lost power, most of them briefly, according to Southern California Edison, but others will not have electricity restored for three days.

The boom of a construction drilling rig swung free and severed a power pole within a half-mile of Cal State Los Angeles on Tuesday, fatally injuring two people and critically injuring two others, including a 5-month-old girl, authorities said. The dead were identified as Rosala Gomez, 27, mother of the baby, and Lisa Solano, 11. The infant, Jessica Laba Gomez, was reported in critical condition at County-USC Medical Center.

In the gusty predawn hours of Oct. 21, 2007, portions of three wooden utility poles in Malibu Canyon snapped and fell to the ground. Sparks from live electrical wires ignited dry brush, creating an inferno that raced down the canyon into the Civic Center area, destroying 14 structures and 36 vehicles.

Some county officials said Friday they want to close a loophole that exempted the power line that caused the Sesnon fire from inspection or brush clearance rules. The move comes a day after The Times reported that the electricity distribution line that sparked the huge blaze was not covered under the state's strict inspection and brush clearance rules because it was not owned by an electric utility and was on private land.

Private eye T.K. Davis has worked his share of oddball cases. Once he tracked down a one-armed woman wanted for child endangerment. He staked out a backyard to catch a guy throwing dirt clods into a pool. When you make your living answering life's mysterious questions at $100 an hour, you take a few calls out of the blue. He works the streets of this suburban town near Santa Cruz, where dog-walking mothers and aging hippies compete for beach time.

Hurricane-strength winds battered Orange County late Wednesday and early Thursday, trapping motorists, downing utility poles and interrupting power to thousands of residents. Although no injuries were reported, 40 businesses in two Santa Ana strip malls probably will be without power until Sunday, said Larry Labrado, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. "Our guys came out last night and have been working ever since," he said. The county's strongest winds were reported about 2:30 a.m.

Power lines are the suspected culprit behind at least five of the 12 major fires that burned in Southern California last week, including the Witch fire, which burned nearly 200,000 acres, destroyed 1,041 homes and killed two people. Although acts of arson generate public outrage and police action, power lines pose a thorny problem with no easy solution: Should utilities do more to prevent failures, particularly in wild-land areas prone to high wind? And are ratepayers willing to pay the bill?

Apple trees have been planted, wood fences restored and power lines buried in recent years to transform the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg to the way it looked when Union and Confederate forces clashed on farmers' fields in 1863. But preservationists worry that the national military park in Pennsylvania's picturesque fruit belt soon may be in the shadow of high-powered transmission lines.

A pickup spun out of control, shearing off two power poles in Ventura on Friday morning, briefly knocking out electricity to 7,050 customers, officials said. Ventura police say the truck hit the poles about 10 a.m., knocking down a transmission line and disrupting traffic for eight hours. The driver, Katherine Malzacher, 32, of Hermosa Beach, suffered minor injuries, police said.

Thirty-five teams from local public utilities test their skills and speed completing work on power poles today in the seventh annual Lineman's Rodeo at the Department of Water and Power training center.

Three people, including a 10-year-old pedestrian, were killed when a speeding vehicle slammed into a utility pole, authorities said Tuesday. The accident occurred about 8:30 p.m. Monday on a long, straight strip of South Alameda Street at 85th Street. The driver, possibly racing another vehicle, lost control of his red 1990 Mustang, veered across lanes of oncoming traffic and skidded sideways into a wooden power pole, said Pete Kim, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.